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AN ADDRESS 



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WILLIAM D. KELLEY, 



Delivered on the 65th Anniversary of American Independence, 



IN THE STATE HOUSE YARD, PHILADELPHIA. 





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AN ADDRESS 



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DELIVERED AT THE ..j n — 



DEMOCRATIC TOWN MEETING, 



IN THE STATE HOUSE YARD, 



l?1Pai?? E^Q)^ai^lE5) l^®^Sl5) 



BY WILLIAM D. KELLEY 



BY INVITATION OF THE COMMITTEE. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE MEETING. 

Printed at No. 9 South Third Street. 

1841. 



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ADDRESS. 



Fellow Citizens: — 

In obedience to the call of your committee L appear before you 
to day. It is at all times pleasent to me to meet you and discuss our 
rights and duties, and when summoned to meet you now I could not 
refuse, although it was apparent that I must make great haste to pre- 
pare for the occasion. This day sanctified as it is to freedom by the 
deeds of our fathers should ever be a joyful one. Its annual occur- 
ence should be celebrated, not only by bonfires and music and the 
thunders of canonry but, by public renewals of the pledges heretofore 
given, that the blessings we received from our fathers shall be trans- 
mitted to our children, — by calling up in review the principles of 
those who gave it historial splendor and applying them to the cir- 
cumstances of the times, and by appeals to the Searcher of hearts, to 
exalt and purify our motives, and guide us in our onward course. 
Such is the method we have chosen ; and as we assemble in the name 
of Democracy, to commemorate the advent of popular liberty, I shall 
survey with my own eyes the aspect of our political affairs, apply to 
them my reason, and utter my own convictions without bias either 
from fear or favor. This the day demands. To do less than this, 
to flatter you, or defer my judgment to that of others would prove 
me a degenerate son of the men who asserted the equality of man, and 
pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honors to maintain the asseition; 
but if in so doing I utter opinions to which you cannot subscribe I 
beg you to examuie them calmly and refute them fairly : this it is not 
only your right to do, but your duty also. It may be well, before 
proceeding further, to inquire what were the peculiar circumstances 
that caused this day to hold a larger place in the afi'ections of the 
people than any other in the calender ? for in answering that question 



we must recount the cherished principles of those who achieved the 
American Revolution, and founded our republic. According to the 
theory of the British government, the liberty man enjoys is not a God- 
given riglit, but a privilege granted by the king and the peers of the 
realm, and guaranteed by a written charter under the great seal of 
Slate, to which he must refer when he would learn how far he may 
obey the impulses of his nature, or when government is violating his 
rights by exercising any prerogative which it promised to abandon. 
The American colonies were established under royal charters and 
acknowledged this doctrine; but they considered many of the 
measures of the king and ministers as extensions of the royal power 
and encroachments on their franchises, against which they must rebel 
or be forever slaves. War had actually commenced before the idea 
of independence found much favor with the people, although 
Jefferson, Franklin, and other leading minds, had long contemplated 
its approach as the inevitable consequent of visible causes, and 
this day, sixty five years ago, the time arrived when it was to be de- 
clared, and the colonies absolved from all allegiance to the British 
crown. In preparing the popular mind for this step all theories of 
government had been discussed, and the awakening of the people to a 
knowledge of their rights quickened in them a warmer faith in the 
integrity and natural worth of man. In these discussions the funda- 
mental truth of Christianity — the fraternity and natural equality of 
men — had been brought with all its beauty and power home to the 
common mind, by which the axe was laid at the root of all systems 
of tyranny, oppression, and privilege. The prevalence of this truth 
must reverse the whole order of society. No more should the many 
be the sport and victims of the few, — the people but a flock to be shorn 
by government; but where all were equal each one should have a voice 
equal to that of his brother. No more were ministers of a soulless 
power to rob the laborer of his hire by inordinate taxation, — was 
man to stand uncovered and trembling in the presence of his self 
styled superior, — was the passion or caprice of a pampered prince to 
drag thousands of God's children from home and friends to the field 
of carnage and death, or a hireling clergy to live in the riotous or 
indolent enjoyment of the first fiuits and fadings of the land, while 
their people hungered and thirsted for the manna and water of life- 
The evils here enumerated had not all obtained an existence in the 



colonies, but the stamp act, tea tax and port bill were usurpations 
which gave assurance that grosser wrongs would follow. They 
were therefore resisted; and henceforth man should stand boldly up 
the equal and measure of man, — the united voice of all be the ruling 
power, assess all taxes and declare all wars, — every man be both a 
citizen and a governor, — every child be eligible to the highest honors 
in the land ; and worship be the free and unrestrained act of the 
individual, subject to no forms but such as conscience might prescribe. 
Such were the fears and hopes of our fathers : and such was their 
faith in man, and the power of truth and justice, that few and feeble 
as they were, they declared, and in the face of Britain's mighty 
power, regardless of sacrifices, maintained the declaration, " that 
all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their 
creator witli certain inalienable rights, among which are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights 
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers 
from the consent of the governed ; that whenever any form of govern- 
ment becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of a people to 
abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on 
such principles and organising its powers in such form as to them shall 
seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." The promul- 
gation and general acknowledgement of these far-reaching truths is 
what has made the annual return of this day a season of joy ; and the 
universality and entliusiasm with which it is observed, furnish no 
slight proof of man's love of right and liberty. But let us not fall into 
the mistake of thinking that these opinions were unanimously 
received. The debates in the convention for draughting a constitution 
for the United States demonstrate clearly, that many of the men of 
those days were unwilling to give them a full practical application, 
or in other words, that society was then as it ever had been and now 
is, divided into two parties, the one satisfied with the existing state 
of affairs, or looking back with sorrow and sighing over the departing 
splendor or quiet of the past, and deprecating all change ; the other 
looking forward to a better condition of things, and striving to modify 
and improve all institutions from which unhappy consequences flow. 
The former is the conservative party, the party of the past, whose 
face is on the back of its head, and whose vocation is to garnish the 
tombs of the prophets ; the latter is the movement party, whose face 



6 

is ever turned towards the future, and whose dearest objects are the 
progress of the individual man, and the nieUoration of his politicaj 
and social condition. The movement party was then the most 
powerful, and triumphed in the convention. A portion of the mem- 
bers of that body sought to shackle the popular will by establishing 
long terms of office and a body of life legislators; and, by empower- 
ing the government to create privileged corporations and grant char- 
ters to a favored few, to establish an aristocracy. But their efforts 
were fruitless ; and not only were the States secured in their 
sovereignty, and the people in the enjoyment of their rights as then 
understood, but the doctrine of progress was affirmed, and the powej- 
of altering, amending, or even revolutionizing the government by the 
peaceable means of reason and the ballot-box, was confided to the peo- 
ple. Yet when the provisions of the constitution were to be admin- 
istered, those who had been defeated in the convention, the conserva- 
tive few, obtained the power and managed to infringe the rights of the 
many, and secure to themselves privileges of which most of the 
aristocracies of Europe might well envy them. Weary as tlie people 
were of the long war they had sustained in achieving the indepen- 
dence of the country, and of the political excitement which followed 
it, they would have rallied in their might to resist an armed and open 
foe though it had combined the powers of earth. But having reared 
their government they forgot that " eternal vigilance is the price of 
liberty," and giving themselves up to agriculture, commerce and the 
pleasures of life, permitted their foes, who understood them too 
well to resort to force, to adopt a series of measures designed with 
more then Norman cunning, to corrupt the fountains of political 
influence, and ultimately reduce the many to dependence on the 
few. Although the people in convention, and the several states, had 
decided explicitly against investing Congress with the power to cre- 
ate corporations or grant special privileges, diese avaricious or ambi- 
tious statesmen found a warrant for exercising both these powers in 
the clause of the constitution, authorising congress to provide for the 
" general welfare " of the United States. They funded a debt, and by 
granting a charter to a banking corporation, clothed a few individuals 
with the privilege of making a currency, and trading with the 
funds of the government ; and pursued a system of legislation based 
on a latitudinous construction of the constitution, so unlimited and 



with so little regard to the rights of the states, that it became apparent 
that if their assumptions were not checked the states would sink into 
mere departments, and the general government be converted into a 
second central despotism. Nor were these their only usurpations. 
They passed the alien law in the vain hope of checking the growing 
influence of the masses, and the sedition law to prevent the people 
from discussing their rights and publicly expressing their opinions, 
lest they might thereby become enamoured of anarchy or infidelity. 
In brief, they exhibited by all their acts a determination to reproduce 
in this country the British government, which one of their leaders 
had called the most stupendous fabric of human wisdom, and another 
pronounced the best model the world ever saw. Matters were hast- 
ening rapidly to a crisis when Virginia and Kentucky in view of the 
pending danger, re-asserted their sovereignty, and in resolutions that 
will live while the history of our country lives, called the government 
back to its original purity. Now were party lines drawn. The 
friends of the rights of the States and the people, flinging to the breeze 
the bright banner of peace — breathing democracy, on which were 
inscribed as their principles " a strict construction of the Federal con- 
stitution — free suffrage — no monopolies — no privileges, but equal 
rights to equal chances for all men," rallied around Jefferson as the 
man who had asserted the broadest theory of human rights and the 
one best qualified to lead their champions on to victory. The result 
of that campaign proves the wisdom of their choice. The friends 
of privilege drew out their serried cohorts, the patronage of the 
government and the influence of the money power were brought to 
bear upon the press, and while it denounced that great and good man 
as a Jacobin, a radical, agrarian, and leveller, the pulpit poured 
forth torrents of licentious abuse of him and the people whose cause 
he espoused. The clergy forgetting that their mission was to produce 
peace on earth and good will among men, entered the political arena, 
and denouncing the entire democracy as a band of infidels, pointed to 
the federalists as the friends of religion and a religious administra- 
tion. Yet all would not do. The people were thoroughly aroused to 
a sense of their danger, and triumphantly carried into power the man 
who had sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility to every form 
of government that enslaves the mind of man, and asserted their rights 
without compromise or qualification. When our party is prepared 



to follow this lofty example, its labors will be crowned with results no 
less glorious. 

Owing to tiic adoption in this country of the common law of Eng- 
land, the unconstitional charter granted to the bank could not be 
repealed. Our supreme judicial tribunal recognised this law, replete 
as it is with feudal technicalities and monarchical principles, and would 
have decided that the charter was a contract which could not be viola- 
ted; Avhich means, in plain language, that congress or our state legisla- 
ture, under the pretence of providing for the general welfare, may sell 
absolutely and unconditionally, any portion of the rights of the people 
— that one legislature may enact a law which the next cannot repeal, 
or that one generation may enter into a compact from which the next, 
Heaven-descended and naturally free though it be, cannot absolve 
itself. This evil therefore Jefferson had to tolerate; but in all other 
respects was the government restored to its proper sphere and action. 
And as a reward for his integrity and devotion, his name is 
enshrined in every American heart; to have supported him is a 
passport to popular favor, and those who opposed him with most vir- 
ulence are compelled to come forward and, giving the lie to their whole 
past lives, avow themselves Jeffersonian democrats of the true Virginia 
school. And yet, fellow citizens, we who wear his party name and 
bear the standard he raised, find ourselves ousted from the seats of 
power with a popular verdict recorded against us. Why are we in 
the minority ? Have the people found reason to repudiate the prin- 
ciples of Jefferson? Were that the case they would hardly cherish 
his name and memory as warmly as they do. No, it is the punish- 
ment following on the heels of our own folly. We have faultered in 
the performance of our duty, been false to our principles and deceived 
the people, and as we deserved they have deserted us. May Heaven 
grant that they fall not in with a band of thieves in their wanderings ! 
Mr. Madison, able and good as he was, made the first departure from 
the true state-rights democratic theory, when, after long and ably oppo- 
sing the re-charter of the bank, he hstened to the voice of expediency, 
and embracing the doctrine that " a power repeatedly exercised by 
congress and acquiesced in by the people should be taken as constitu- 
tional," signed the charter. If this be true, the federal theory of 
a free construction of the constitution is correct ; and then is a demo- 
cracy the worst form of despotism. The people in convention 



9 

draughted the constitution, and the states as sovereigns ratified it. 
They are both parties to it; and if the entire poj^ulation by a direct 
and unanimous vote were to declare themselves in favor of altering it 
they could not do it until three-fourths of the states in their corporate 
capacity would give their assent. The people can alter or amend that 
instrument ; but they must act in a double capacity — as individuals 
and as members of the state,' — and then a bare majority is powerless. 
If a simple majority could change the constitution, it would be a farce 
and a mockery to refer to it as a binding authority. If then a power 
was unconstitutional in the beginning, it must be equally so now, 
though congress has often exercised it, and the people acquiesced 
in their acts. Establish this doctrine, and you not only convert 
wrong into right by frequent repetition of the wrong, but virtually 
abrogate the constitution, remove all restrictions from the absolute 
will of the majority, and establish the despotism of the many. If the 
majority may do one act prohibited by the constitution it may do any 
other; if it may establish a bank it may grant a monopoly of trade, or 
establish a state religion, or deprive the minority of the right of suf- 
frage: in fact there is nothing that it may not do. These are legitimate 
conclusions from this doctrine : and the federalists foresaw them when 
they first promulgated it, and sought by the aid of the banking and 
funding system and other kindred contrivances, to enable the designing 
few at the head of the government to control the will of the majority 
by controUing their interests. The commission of this mistake by- 
Mr. Madison was a triumph to the Federal party. From the day on 
which he signed that charter the brilliancy of the star of democracy 
waned, or rather, clouds of error gathered about it, obscuring its lustre; 
and the compromise effected in the election of Mr. Monroe was not 
the burial but the triumph of Federalism. The friends of privilege 
are never willing to abandon the favors they seek. Their appetite is 
insatiable, and that compromise was ah, so far as essential principles 
were at stake, made by the Democracy. During the administration of 
Ml-. Monroe the Bank enjoyed a peaceable existence, internal im- 
provements were begun by the general government in several of the 
states, protective duties were imposed, and this dangerous doctrine 
was applied in various ways. It was not carried out so far or so 
boldly as the Federalists would have carried it, but it was acknow- 
ledged and practised on. Ht>:ice it was that so many candidates for 
2 



10 

the Presidoncy wore Ijvonght into the field at its close. Party lines 
had l)(.'cn eflaced. There was no distinctly defined principle espoused 
by either party, and the contest necessarily became a mere personal or 
sectional war. 1 1 ad the Democratic leaders , the men in whom the party 
confided, been true to principle, there would have been no difiiculty in 
uniting upon a candidate. The people would have inquired only as 
to who had been the ablest, most zealous and honest advocate of their 
principles, and fixing their minds upon that man would have given 
him a nomination and a triumphant election. Interest them in a cause 
worthy of their devotion and there is no danger of the people being 
led away by men. See how nobly they sustained Jackson in every 
step he took against the money power and the federal infiuence in 
congress. Party leaders often flinched, prominent friends fearing the 
loss of popularity by hazarding too much, forsook him, but the people 
never. He was the hnpersonation of their cause, and through good 
report and evil report they cheered him on and felt that in deserting 
him they would have betrayed the interests of their country. Why 
then it may be asked was not Mr. Van Buren sustained ? Was he 
not honest as Jackson and true to Democracy as Jefierson ? Yes he 
was all that, and the cause of his defeat is not with him but with his 
friends. Their treachery to the people ruined him. His adminis- 
tration will have its place in history, and be referred to with pride by 
the friends of good government when the Normans who now occupy 
the Capitol will be remembered only to show how corrupt or per- 
versely blind men of acknowledged intellect may be. But during the 
administrations of Jackson and Van Buren the Democratic party was 
in power in a majority of the states, and while sustaining them in their 
warfare against pri^'ilege, it in many instances created, and in more 
winked at the creation of scores of corporate monopohes, especially of 
banks; and by thus deranging the currency, the exchanges and the 
financial aflairs of the country, gave force and plausibility to the 
sophisms of those who ask for a United States Bank, with a capital 
large enough to regidate them all. Nor was this the only argument 
with which our dereliction furnished his foes. These state corpora- 
tions are privileged to manufacture currency — to put forth promises to 
pay money and call it by the name of that which it but remotely re- 
presents, which they have done without regard to right, justice or 
even law, until by depreciating our circulating medium they have 
vaised the price of commodities so high that other nations can man- 



11 

ufacture thein, transport them hither, and sell them iu our markets 
cheaper then we can fabricate them. Thus they have paralyzed our 
industry and given weight to the arguments of the friends of discrim- 
inating duties. For my own part I believe that a National Bank and a 
tariff are both necessary if banks of issue are to be created in the 
several states ; and when it is demonstrated to my satisfaction that the 
public good requires the chartering of a legion of banks with the privi- 
lege of creating an unlimited amount of paper currency, I will agitate 
the question of an alteration of the Federal constitution, and advocate 
the insertion of a clause empowering congress to charter a bank and 
enact protective duties ; measures which, thanks to the wisdom of 
our fathers, it now prohibits. But worse perhaps than all this in its 
consequences on Mr. Van Buren and our cause, in the late campaign, 
was the want of popular confidence in our local party leaders, who had 
habitually held forth large promises and beautiful theories to the peo- 
ple, yet shown their love for the fat things of the land whenever placed 
in responsible situations. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, and 
the people thus often deceived were ready for any change that pro- 
raised consistency, and rallied to the support of a man whose intellect 
was weak, whose views were contracted, but who Avas frank, warm- 
hearted and faithful to his promises. Had Mr. Van Buren stood alone 
he would have been re-elected. But general and state politics were 
mingled, and the sins of his friends were visited upon his head. 
Indeed, a retrospective glance at the legislation of the states is enough 
to sicken the heart of the ardent lover of human equality and constitu- 
tional freedom, and if it be permitted the spirits of the fathers of our 
government to look down from their lofty abodes, and note the events 
of earth and time, it must cast a shade of disappointment over their 
beatitude. All the states would be too large a field to traverse. 
Let us therefore confine ourselves to our own commonwealth and 
glance hastily at its history, to see how widely we have departed from 
the Democratic creed. But first let us settle what Democracy is, and 
what it requires. There are many who say that Democracy is the 
absolute government of the majority. This position we have already 
examined somewhat, and seen that the government of the majority 
may to a large minority be unmitigated despotism. If the will of 
the majority is absolute it may pass sumptuary laws, or say when a 
man may kiss his wife or child, as the early settlers of Connecticut 
did, and that would certainly not be Democralic. If the majority is 



12 

absolute it. may adopt a state religion and code of morals, and denoun- 
cing freedom of thought and boldness of expression as high crimes, 
punish dissent, and thus destroy all hope of progress; and this would 
not be Democratic, for he is as much a slave who trembles at the 
frown of a mob, as he who pales and cowers in the presence of an 
angry monarch. Democracy is the unabridged liberty of all. It 
wars against all power but that of justice as proclaimed by the com- 
mon voice after the freest and fullest discussion ; it respects the rights 
of the minority ; and as we represent justice with nicely balanced 
scales in her hand, it requires that government do no more than protect 
each man in the enjoyment of his rights, and raise by a tax, assessed 
equally on all, the trifling expense incurred in the performance of this 
limited duty. Democracy demands not much government but little, 
not splendor but simplicity, and when a government attempts to do 
more then preserve order in the state and administer justice between 
man and man, it must infringe the rights of some and become a tyrant, 
be its name Monarchy, Aristocracy, or Democracy. How closely 
has our state adhered to this standard ? 

It has enacted a multitude of laws not required by the public good, 
and by thus erecting factitious standards of right and wrong, has rend- 
ered it impossible for any citizen to know his legal responsibilities with- 
out devoting years to the study of law, exclusive of all other pursuits. 

It has legislated for particular interests and sections, and thereby 
created an arbitrary and artificial diversity of interests, and made the 
many tributary to the few. 

It has concentrated wealth and invested it with privileges, and by 
thus increasing the power of accumulating it already possessed, has 
augmented the inequalities in society — making the rich richer at the 
expense of the laboring poor. 

It has enacted under popular titles, laws restraining trade in money, 
and by checking individual enterprise, has enhanced the privileges of 
its chartered favorites, Avhom in the plentitude of its usurped power, it 
has attempted to raise above all law. 

It has entered the field of private enterprise, and by undertaking 
the construction of splended facilities for trade and commerce, the 
good effects of which are only felt in the parts of the state they traverse 
and in which they commence and terminate, and which nominally 
depreciate all other property in the ratio in which they appreciate 
those sections, has compelled a large body of the people to contribute 
funds for the creation of the mean? of their own impoverishment. 



13 

It has, in consummating this undertaking, and conducting the bus- 
iness of a common carrier, created a multitude of offices with trivial 
duties and large salaries and thereby enrolled an army of tax consum- 
ers, and tainted the purity of elections. 

It has, in order to effect these anti-Democratic measures, borrowed 
tens of millions of dollars and mortgaged the farms and workshops of 
the people, for the payment of millions of interest to an aristocracy who 
are thus raised above the necessity of labor, enterprise, or even thought, 
and enabled to " clothe themselves in purple and fine linen and fare 
sumptuously every day." 

It has adopted the English law, arising from her construction 
of the marriage contract, and extended the doctrine of tenancy by 
courtesy, and thus reduced so far as law can do it, the women of 
the commonwealth to the condition of toys or slaves, dependent on 
the will of the stronger sex. 

And by its constitutional provisions, together with this unwise and 
unjust legislation, so fraught with the causes of pauperism and 
crime, it has deprived thousands of men of the right of suffrage and 
thus invested them with the acknowledged right to rebel against a 
tyrant who will not listen to their voice or consult them in the enact- 
ment of laws for their government. 

These are but part of the errors and usurpations of our state, and 
we discover their effects in the fear so generally expressed each win- 
ter that the legislature will increase the duties of the tax collector— 
in the comparative decay of some of the oldest and once most flourish-, 
ing towns in the commonwealth — in the uncertainty of trade and the 
expense of our courts of law — in the embarrassed condition of the 
government — in the loss of private honor and honesty — in the increased 
love of luxury, magnilicence and idle but costly display, and in the 
increase of squalor poverty, and wretchedness, in the midst of a com- 
monwealtli composed of men who are all created equal and endowed 
by their creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pur- 
suit of happiness. As Democrats, my fellow-citizens, it is our duty 
to correct these evils, to defeat this system of special legislation, to 
purge our statute books of every law that grants a privilege to any man 
or body of men, and to raise as it were a wall of fire around the rights of 
the poorest and weakest of our brethren, that they may not be oppressed 
or wronged with impunity by the richest or strongest in the state, nor 
by the state itself. If we prove recreant to this duty we deserve de- 



14 

feat in every contest into which we may enter; but if we are true to 
it, victory will not fail to perch upon our banner, for we will be fulfill- 
ing the mission of Democracy and our country. Engage with heart 
in this work and the people will rally in support of our cause, and 
bearing down all opposition will win us triumph after triumph until 
liberty and equality shall be realised among men, and the destiny of 
our country completed. Think not that this is unmeaning declama- 
tion, or that I claim the spirit of prophecy in declaring thus positively 
what the future will yield. It is truth established by philosophy and 
demonstrated by history. Man is not the creature of chance. Like 
all things else, humanity is under fixed laws, and society subject to 
God's providence ; and under that providence no nation has yet been 
false to its mission. Men in masses are sound logicians ; and we may 
look back to remotest antiquity and find that every people who have 
enjoyed a distinct independent existence, have pushed forward, to their 
last legitimate results, the ideas that filled the minds of diose who rear- 
ed their fundamental institutions. Thousands of years have elapsed 
since the religious idea called into existence the governments of the 
East, and imagination cannot conceive a people more obedient to a 
government than those of India and Asia are to their Theocrats. 
Beauty, the muses, and graces were the objects of Greek adoration, 
and the remaining fragments of Grecian poetry, eloquence, statuary and 
architecture, still furnish the world with unequalled models. Rome 
worshipped power, conquest, and dominion, and she ceased not to grow 
and flourish until she sat upon her seven hills the mistress of the world. 
But to come nearer our own age and country let us glance at England. 
The idea of her government is a graduated scale of factitious distinc- 
tions, the cement of which is a love of conventional honor a.nd the 
hope each man feels that he may one day enter the rank above him 
and tower over his former neighbours. This is a complicated and a 
base design. Yet see how thoroughly it has been perfected! 
Behold the magnificence of her sovereign, the luxuriousness of her 
lords, spiritual and temporal, the Avealth and power of her commons, 
the comfort of her traders and the poverty and degradation of her 
overwrought and enslaved laborers, the millions on whose emaciated 
frames this splendid pyramid is erected, and doubt if you can whether 
nations are practical logicians or true to the principles that pervade 
their institutions. 

Am I wrong then in saying that our ' nuitrymen will sustain us 



15 

when we pledge ourselves to the promotion of liberty and equality ? 
Was it not the love of liberty that brought the early settlers of our 
country from home and friends to a wilderness abode, — that carried 
our fathers through the war of the revolution and again through the 
late war ? Is there one in this vast assemblage that would not rather 
die a freeman than live a slave — nay, that would not rather toil from 
morning till night for a subsistance, than know that a fellow-man en- 
slaved to his will trembled at his bidding ? 

But liberty is not the sole idea that possesses the American mind ; 
we habitually join equality with that word, and answer to all who 
assume superiority, " I am as good as you, you may be wiser or rich- 
er, as you may taller or stronger, but we are children of a common 
Father, and our rights before Him, the state, and society, are equal." 
To realise these ideas, or this idea — for to enjoy liberty, equality of 
rights must be established — is the mission of the American people, 
Let us then return to the broad ground of Democracy, fling to the 
breeze the standard of Jefferson, and pledge our lives, our fortunes 
and our sacred honor to efface from our laws and institutions every 
principle that is not consonant with the truths, that all men are crea- 
ted equal and all power is inherent in the people. Looking towards 
the Federal government, we must make the constitution the sheet an- 
chor of our hope, prevent the adoption of any measure by which the 
rights of a single state may be infringed, and oppose the passage of 
laws in aid of any special interest. Labor is too hardy and too honest 
to need protection. Discriminating duties protect the capitalist at the 
expense of the laborer, or as some have it, take care of the rich and 
thus enable them to take care of the poor ; we must therefore oppose 
the whole so called protective or American system, which gives to the 
proletaire, the man without property, just such protection as the vulture 
gives the dove. And not only must we oppose the chartering of a 
bank by congress, but should a majority of that body in defiance of 
the constitution incorporate such an institution, we must raise the 
standard of repeal, make repeal our watchword, and labor without rest 
until the obnoxious law is abrogated, the money power dethroned, and 
the functions of the Federal government restored to the hands of offi- 
cers chosen by the people and responsible to the people. It is quite 
time that we should explode the feudal docti'ine of vested rights, 
and establish beyond cavil the principle that the only business of the 
American legislator is to enact laws; and that when he barters or 



16 

gives away the least portion of the lights of any one citizen, he trans- 
cends his powers, and his acts are null and void from the beginning. 
If we resolve to repeal any charter congress may grant, we can doit, 
and if the parties aggrieved sue for their franchises, we need not doubt 
but the sound constitutional jurist who now presides over the Supreme 
Court of the United States will vindicate the constitution against all 
encroachments from Judicial legislation, and drive such slaves of 
mammon from the halls of justice in humiliation deep as that of the 
whipped money changers of old. In all matters pertaining to the 
general government, we must look to the rights of the states and pre- 
serve the Federative system in its purity. But in our own state we 
must be democrats not in name or in words alone, but in deeds. 
Rapidly as we can we must repeal all grants of special privilege — 
simplify our laws — withdraw the state from the field of private enter- 
prise, reduce the number of offices, increase the duties of many of 
those remaining and decrease the salaries of others : in brief we must 
enter our protest against all injustice, extend the hand of fellowship 
to the poor and lowly, and promote by our every act equality of con- 
dition among men. This is our duty. Let us pledge ourselves 
anew to perform it, and to nominate no man in the coming campaign 
who will not pledge himself to forward with all his power our good 
cause. Thus much accomplished, the election will be needed only to 
confirm a forgone conclusion ; for Avith such a cause we must succeed. 
Each member of the party will rally again, and inspired with new hope 
and courage throw himself into the breach determined to conquer or 
fall fighting : the vain pretences of our foes to the title of democrats 
will be exposed, and the thousands of laborers who under the influence 
of disappointment and chagrin at our past derelictions have deserted 
us, will again buckle on their armour, take their stand with us 
shoulder to shoulder, and when the fight is done and the ancient dem- 
ocratic character of the Keystone state restored, will join us in shouts 
of triumph, and deeds of purity worthy the days of Jefferson and 
Snyder. Fear not denunciation; Radical, Agrarian, Leveller, and Loco 
Foco, are but words, and have never yet served to frighten men from 
their love of liberty. Inscribe your principles broadly and plainly 
on your banner, repose a just confidence in the people, and casting 
aside party management, ask only what is right and just, and you may 
camly leave the consequences to Him who searches the individual 
heart and sways the destiny of nations, • 



